You Are the Healer, I'm Only the Consultant

Lets start this newsletter with a reminder

This is your newsletter and as such, I invite you to send in your questions or suggestions for topics.

As an old instructor of mine used to say, "ask me anything, just so long as I know the answer"

And this week, the conversations have been very much about intensity and recovery, specifically when it comes to pain and injury.

It is human nature to want to go all or nothing, full bore or not at all.

It's also human nature to do what we think we know, rather than listen to out body and use an intuitive approach.

Of the first, I'm with you. I tend to attack things, injuries included, and have messed myself up many times as a result.

On the second, I am fortunate to have never fallen into the trap of not listening to my body.

And as a result, I've helped myself more than I've been helped by most therapists and trainers.

However, from talking to folks, I know I am an outlier.

The majority have lost touch with their body, they do their best to intellectualise physical issues and use external tools rather than giving the body space to heal itself.

I hope that sentence makes sense

Here's another way of looking at it, a sentiment that I read from a physio I follow on SocMed, "Most of our job is to entertain the client while they heal themselves"

It sounds flippant, which it is, but with all good humour, it is based in truth.

The Big Three of Injury Recovery

Most of the time, your body need time, it needs the right stimulus and the raw materials and very little else.

Time is complex, soft tissues tend to heal in around 6 to 18 weeks or so depending on the tissue and the severity of the injury.

If you ever broke a bone, you were probably in a cast for around 6 weeks while the bone repaired itself, sprains take much longer.

The raw materials, well that's basically food, water and sunlight. Repair is expensive, it takes calories to fuel it and requires proteins, minerals, vitamins etc to actually rebuild the tissues. I liken it it a house, you may need to buy in wood, screws, paint etc, the raw materials to make repairs or upgrades with.

It's not really much different than recovering from training, just more severe.

And that brings us to stimulus.

By stimulus we mean rehab

And by rehab, we mean training.

And like all training, we start where we are, and we look to work at the level our tissues can tolerate at the intensity we can recover from.

From Expert to Consultant: The Power of Feedback

Obviously, in the case of injury, that level may be very low.

At least initially.

But it should increase, and keep increasing at an ever quicker pace until it is no longer an issue and normal life resumes.

And this is where intuition and listening to your body comes in.

It's all well and good me telling you do do X reps of whatever movements, and gradually add load or frequency etc.

But without your feedback, how can I know I'm doing right by you?

How can you know I'm doing right by you?

I have one client, a lady with some quite complex needs who's worked with me for a while, and this conversation has been running since day one.

And about a month ago, a penny seemed to drop and she started asking me better questions, give better feedback, send videos she found to ask if that'd help and more.

She started listening to her body, started trying to understand the messages it was sending her, not with scientific terminology and pain science, but with intuition and common sense.

And as result, she is flying. She's made more progress in that short window that in all the time previously.

All because she took it upon herself to take the reins, to use me as a resource rather than an all powerful healer/coach, she used me as a consultant to advise her on what she could do.

Which is perfection.

You Are in Charge

I may be the "expert," the consultant.

But it's your body, you are in charge.

So, eat well, drink water, sleep fitfully and take charge.

I'm here in your corner, but it's you that's in the ring.

I'll advise you on the training, the rehab, the stimulus

But you have to live it.

Your attitude determines your outcomes more than anything else.

Do that and you'll be just fine.

You may even be better than fine. You may well surpass all expectations.

If you give it time and work with consistency.

It's simple

Not easy

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net